Everything new can be old again
Trina Berlo photo: Heirloom 142 proprietor Laurie Severn with the 1928 cash register that was once used to ring up sales at her grandfather’s luggage and handbag store in Toronto.
A coat of paint can give new life to old furniture.
With the right paint, a little technique and some help from Laurie Severn, everything can be given that oft-desired vintage charm.
Severn carries milk paint and runs workshops at her new Creemore store, Heirloom 142.
Milk paint, says Severn, is what our grandparents and great grandparents would have used. Made of chalk, milk protein, clay, limestone and mineral pigments, the just-add-water paint powder mix is organic, biodegradable and without VOC (volatile organic compounds). Severn carries milk paint made by Homestead House Paint Company, a Canadian company that also makes the Miss Mustard Seed branded colours.
The paint can be used indoors and out, on almost any surface. Waxes, oils, stencils and brushes can be used to add texture and create a distressed look.
For those who want to skip the mixing, Heriloom 142 also carries a mineral based furniture paint by the same company, called Fusion.
The paint fits with Severn’s love of all things vintage.
“It’s a passion turned into a business,” she says. “It’s fun to take a piece that is kind of ugly and transform it into something beautiful that really shines.”
She says she fell in love with the French country look while living in France.
Severn and her husband, Pierre Armengol, moved to Creemore from Andorra, a country on the border of France and Spain, where they lived for a decade. Before that, they lived in Paris for four years.
Severn owned a large store in the small mountain resort town of Ordino. The store carried home décor, gourmet foods and had a café.
When Severn wanted to move back home to Canada, she and her husband located in Toronto and then spent a year looking for a place to set up a new retail location. Last fall, they discovered Creemore, which has some similarities to the mountain village in Andorra, in that it is near a ski resort and has both summer and winter visitors.
Severn is offering workshops on how to use the paint or you can hand over the piece you want refinished and she will do it for you.
Heirloom 142 is located at 142 Mill Street and is online at www.heirloom142.com.
